Artist: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Album: Raising Sand
Year: 2007
Grade: 2 pretzels
It’s been two weeks since the Grammy Awards and the irrational hatred I inevitably feel after watching them has subsided. I promised to listen to Robert Plant & Alison Krauss’s Raising Sand, the album that ran away with five Grammys, including Album Of The Year, making it the crowned champion of this year’s awards. So, without further ado, here we go.
I’ll be honest here: I didn’t want to like this record. I was annoyed that it won so many awards, so, being biased, I went into this album looking for things to criticize about it. Is this fair to the album? Absolutely not. Am I entitled to do this? You betcha! However, as soon as I started the album, I realized there was a flaw in my whole plan: I really, really liked the first song. Even now, two weeks later, I still enjoy listening to “Rich Woman”, the smoky leadoff song that won the award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. It’s a dark, mysterious, subdued…hey look! All three of those are things I like in music! Are they gonna maintain this throughout the album? Did the Grammys get something right here?
Answer: nope! Any goodwill “Rich Woman” had earned this album in my mind was erased by the impossibly dull country-blues clunker that followed it, “Killing The Blues”. I’ll point out that this was another song from the album that won a specific award (this time, it was best Country Collaboration). Unfortunately, “Killing The Blues” is very, very boring. Worst of all, it makes Robert Plant sound old. Of all the things missing from this album (originality, inspiration, etc), the lack of true Zeppelin-like vocal heroics is the most glaring. Of course, Plant is sixty years old, but numerous PBS specials have proven that he can still wail like he used to if needed. Without his golden voice to offset Krauss’s pure, slightly irritating croon, Raising Sand feels flat and detached from the emotions in the songs.
Perhaps there’s a reason Plant and Krauss seem so distanced from the songs: they didn’t write them. A quick look through the album notes reveals that producer T-Bone Burnett is the real creative force at work here. Besides producing the whole thing, he chose the grab-bag of covers that Plant and Krauss tackle. He also played virtually all the guitar parts on every song. When seen through that light, Raising Sand is quite an accomplishment for Burnett. His production and musical choices are inspired, favoring a stripped down, skeletal sound that exposes the songs he’s covering. Unfortunately, it also exposes the weary vocal performances his singers are turning in.
It’s interesting that the Grammys have awarded Album Of The Year to covers albums two years in a row (last year, it was Herbie Hancock with his insipid record of Joni Mitchell covers). While I don’t want to say anything bad about the artistic merit of covers albums, we do live in an era were originality in music is treasured. On top of that, Raising Sand isn’t even a very good cover album. Like most, it has a few tracks where the artists manage to transcend the originals (their take on Tom Waits’s “Trampled Rose” is another highlight). However, all too often, they simply retread through their source material, without putting any unique touch on the songs at hand. This album has moments of undeniable brilliance, but they are too few and too far between for this album to be truly considered the Album Of The Year for 2008. Shame on you, Grammys.
I’ll be honest here: I didn’t want to like this record. I was annoyed that it won so many awards, so, being biased, I went into this album looking for things to criticize about it. Is this fair to the album? Absolutely not. Am I entitled to do this? You betcha! However, as soon as I started the album, I realized there was a flaw in my whole plan: I really, really liked the first song. Even now, two weeks later, I still enjoy listening to “Rich Woman”, the smoky leadoff song that won the award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. It’s a dark, mysterious, subdued…hey look! All three of those are things I like in music! Are they gonna maintain this throughout the album? Did the Grammys get something right here?
Answer: nope! Any goodwill “Rich Woman” had earned this album in my mind was erased by the impossibly dull country-blues clunker that followed it, “Killing The Blues”. I’ll point out that this was another song from the album that won a specific award (this time, it was best Country Collaboration). Unfortunately, “Killing The Blues” is very, very boring. Worst of all, it makes Robert Plant sound old. Of all the things missing from this album (originality, inspiration, etc), the lack of true Zeppelin-like vocal heroics is the most glaring. Of course, Plant is sixty years old, but numerous PBS specials have proven that he can still wail like he used to if needed. Without his golden voice to offset Krauss’s pure, slightly irritating croon, Raising Sand feels flat and detached from the emotions in the songs.
Perhaps there’s a reason Plant and Krauss seem so distanced from the songs: they didn’t write them. A quick look through the album notes reveals that producer T-Bone Burnett is the real creative force at work here. Besides producing the whole thing, he chose the grab-bag of covers that Plant and Krauss tackle. He also played virtually all the guitar parts on every song. When seen through that light, Raising Sand is quite an accomplishment for Burnett. His production and musical choices are inspired, favoring a stripped down, skeletal sound that exposes the songs he’s covering. Unfortunately, it also exposes the weary vocal performances his singers are turning in.
It’s interesting that the Grammys have awarded Album Of The Year to covers albums two years in a row (last year, it was Herbie Hancock with his insipid record of Joni Mitchell covers). While I don’t want to say anything bad about the artistic merit of covers albums, we do live in an era were originality in music is treasured. On top of that, Raising Sand isn’t even a very good cover album. Like most, it has a few tracks where the artists manage to transcend the originals (their take on Tom Waits’s “Trampled Rose” is another highlight). However, all too often, they simply retread through their source material, without putting any unique touch on the songs at hand. This album has moments of undeniable brilliance, but they are too few and too far between for this album to be truly considered the Album Of The Year for 2008. Shame on you, Grammys.
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